Administration

Geography

The town is built on a hill, with the north side being more elevated than the south side. It is at the meeting point of two rivers: the Ille and the Vilaine (hence the name of the département Ille-et-Vilaine).

History

Economy

Local industries include car manufacturing and telecommunications. Citroën, currently the largest employer of the population of Rennes, opened a manufacturing plant at Rennes La Janais in 1961 to manufacture the Ami.

Missing imageRennes_old_houses_DSC08918.jpg

Some medieval houses, such as these ones, can still be found in the center of Rennes.

Culture

Rennes invests heavily in arts and culture and a number of its festivals (such as the music festival Les Transmusicales, les Tombées de la Nuit and le Travelling (a cinematic festival)) are well known throughout France.
Since February 14 2005, there has been a local television channel called Rennes TV.
Rennes is home to Stade Rennais FC, who play in the French Premier League.

Transportation

Rennes has well developed national road, rail and air links and is two hours by TGV train from Paris. Local transport is based primarily on an extensive bus network (38 different lines) and a metro line that was inaugurated in March 2002. The metro line, called the VAL, which cost 500 million Euro to construct, is 9.4 km in length and has 15 stations, including one designed by architect Norman Foster. Rennes is one of the smallest cities in the world to have a Metro.